Current Layout by Gaylord Gill

Layout Name:

"Buffalo & Chautauqua"

Official Web Site:

Visit

Layout Status:

active

Track Type:

Layout Space:

30' x 42'

Layout Style:

Point-to-point, with reversing loops

Track Manufacturer:

Tomalco Track flextrack & turnouts

Rail Size:

code 100

Min. Turnout Frog:

mainline: #8; yards: #6; industries: #4

Min. Radius:

43"

Ruling Grade:

Track Height(s):

42" to 56"

Mainline Track Length:

320'

Completed:

benchwork: 100%, track: 95%, scenery: 70%

Era:

1953

Setting:

PRR Northern Division in Western New York

Railroad(s) Modeled:

PRR, B&O, NYC

Control System:

DCC (North Coast Engineering)

Featured In:

The S Scale Resource, Jun 2016, pg 7

Notes:

The roadbed on Gaylord's layout is Homabed over a plywood subroadbed. The scenery base was made out of Structolite spread over window screening. The backdrops were painted on coved walls. His structures are a mix of kits, kit-bashed kits, and scratch-built models.

River Raisin Model's Mikado in NYC livery pounds the mainline through Corrington.

This is an older photo of a River Raisin Models 2-8-2 Mike coming off the RRM pin-connected bridge along the Chautauqua Branch. In Gaylord's current version of the railroad, NYC equipment would only be found at the interchange tracks. To the left is Lehigh Valley's row house kit. Smoke effect added by Brooks Stover.

PRR 2-10-0 Decapod prepares to take the Covington Bridge west of Grand Valley.

A Pennsy RSD-5 works the siding at Koenig Fuel in Olean. The Alco Models locomotive was one of the first scale engines Gaylord acquired, and it remains one of his favorites. He scratch-built the fuel depot, using a combination of brass and plastic materials, and the tops of his storage tanks are cut from the plastic bottoms of frozen juice containers. This photo appeared in the Railroad Model Craftsman May 2022 issue of the NASG-sponsored inside-the-front-cover ad. This was the first such effort at the revised RMC ad.

One of Angola's industries is Corrington Tile, with a factory Gaylord kit-bashed from an HO-scale Millworks kit by Walthers. A railfan stops his car on the wooden bridge to watch a Pennsy I1 Decapod pulling a short freight past the grade crossing.

The little town of Angola has a passing siding and three small industries. This little freight house was a kit from Taurus Products, and Gaylord added Central Valley steps and HO-scale paper shingles.

PRR I1 Decapod arrives with a manifest train at the east end of Olean yard. The one-lane timber bridge in the background is modeled after one that Gaylord played on as a kid in western Michigan. Forty years ago he managed to take a series of photos just before the bridge was torn down, and that allowed him to scratch-build the model. This photo appeared in Model Railroader's Trackside Photos in 2007.

This is the west entrance to Babcock Street Yard, the central feature of the B&C. Beyond the tower at the right, the yard throat opens to seven tracks. Gaylord is building this 275' elevated trestle from HO-scale components by Micro Engineering and Central Valley. The SW1 switcher is an early brass import from Oriental Models.

Midway through the elevated yard, we get a view of the surrounding neighborhood, where Babcock Street crosses under the yard. The Woolworth's store is a DSL Shops kit, assembled for Gaylord by his friend Randy Bosscher. Structures beyond the far track are HO-scale to force the perspective of distance, and in the background is Lake Erie.

Just past the yard, the trackage is the PRR Buffalo Main heading towards Emporium, PA. This farm scene displays a variety of structure assembly techniques; the weathered barn to the rear is a board-by-board kit from Finestkind Models, the red barn is scratch-built (with a Pringles can forming the silo tower), and the farmhouse is one Gaylord created from HO-scale modular components by DPM.

The March/April 2021 NASG Dispatch features an article by Gaylord Gill on how he constructed the "Randy's Bar & Grill" model for his layout. The model started with the S-scale version of the Bar Mills "The 1-Kit". Of course, Gaylord enhanced the model by adding many scratch-built features.

Brooks Stover added enhancements to Gaylord's photo, including the smoke effects. The scene is at the Pennsy's yard in Olean, NY, and the crew of shifter #8547 prepares to add a cut of cars to train PB-1 as it makes its way to Buffalo.